v.] TRAMETES RADICIPERDA. 147 



only the fructification of a Polyporus, or of a toad- 

 stool, or of a mushroom (projecting from a rotting 

 stump or from the ground, for instance;, the botanist 

 knows that this fructification is attached to, and has 

 taken origin from, a number of fine colourless filaments 

 woven into a felt-like mass known as the mycelium, 

 and that this felt-work of mycelium is spreading on 

 and in the rotten wood, or soil, or whatever else the 

 fungus grows on, and acts as roots, &c., for the benefit 

 of the fructification. 



Now, the peculiarity of the mycelium of this 

 Trametes radiciperda is that it spreads in the wood of 

 the roots and trunks of pines and firs and other 

 Conifers, and takes its nourishment from the wood- 

 substance, &c., and it is principally to the researches 

 of Hartig that we owe our knowledge of how it gets 

 there and what it does when there. He found that 

 the spores germinate easily in the moisture around 

 the roots, and put forth filaments which enter between 

 the bark-scales, and thus the mycelium establishes 

 itself in the living tree, between the cortex and the 

 wood (Fig. 12). It is curious to note that the spores 

 may be carried from place to place by mice and other 

 burrowing animals, since this Trametes is apt to 

 develop its fructification and spores in the burrows, 

 and they are rubbed off into the fur of the 



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